FI / FICOintermediate

FICO Cost Center Accounting Part 2: Categories, Postings and Integration with FI and Logistics

Key takeaway

Understand what posts to cost centers and how: cost center categories and lock indicators, postings from FI, MM goods issues, asset depreciation and payroll, activity types and activity allocation, statistical key figures and manual repostings.

Explanation

📌 KEY POINTS
✅ Cost center categories (e.g. administration, production) provide defaults and lock indicators.
✅ Costs arrive from FI (invoices, journals), MM (goods issues 201), assets (depreciation) and payroll.
✅ Activity types (e.g. machine hours) with prices allocate costs from producing to receiving objects.
✅ Statistical key figures (e.g. headcount, m²) serve as tracing factors for allocations.
⚠️ Default account assignment (OKB9) can silently send postings to a default cost center — review it periodically.

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▶ WHERE WE ARE
Part 1 covered basics. Now postings.

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▶ 1. CATEGORIES AND LOCKS

Lock primary/secondary costs, quantities per cost center.

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▶ 2. INTEGRATION

FI, MM, AA, HR postings with cost center.

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▶ 3. ACTIVITY TYPES

Planned price × quantity = allocation.

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▶ 4. STATISTICAL KEY FIGURES

Fixed or totals values as allocation bases.

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▶ 5. CORRECTIONS

Reposting of line items or costs.

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▶ STEP BY STEP

Create an activity type and plan a price.
Allocate hours to a receiving cost center.
Post statistical key figures for next month's allocation.

✅ CHECKPOINT: sender credited, receiver debited with a secondary cost element.

Code example

ABAP Code

===== CONFIG / TRANSACTIONS =====Cost center categories: SPRO (Controlling > CCA > Master Data > Cost Centers > Define Cost Center Categories)KL01 activity type | KP26 activity price planning | KB21N direct activity allocationKK01 statistical key figure | KB31N enter SKF values | KB11N manual reposting | OKB9 default account assignment ===== ACTIVITY ALLOCATION =====Maintenance cost center → 20 hours × 50 = 1,000 → Cr sender 1,000 | Dr production cost center 1,000 (secondary cost element)

Real project scenario

Month-end costs for a new team landed on a generic cost center because OKB9 defaulted it for several accounts. Removing unnecessary defaults and enforcing cost center entry on invoices corrected ownership.

Common mistakes

Overusing OKB9 defaults.
Manual reposting habits.
No activity prices.
SKFs not updated.
Wrong categories.

Best practices

Minimal defaults.
Fix at source.
Plan activity prices.
Update SKFs monthly.
Maintain categories.

Interview angle

Questions: "What posts to cost centers?", "What is an activity type?", "What are statistical key figures?"
Strong answer: categories and locks, integration sources, activity allocation, SKFs, reposting.

Practice this lesson

Quick check

1. A primary cost is posted to a cost center from Financial Accounting. What additional CO account assignment is required for this posting to succeed?

2. Which cost center category setting primarily controls whether a cost center can be used as a sender in activity allocation?

3. Statistical key figures (SKFs) are primarily used in Cost Center Accounting to:

Interview questions

1. How would you apply Cost Center Accounting in a real SAP project? Walk through the design or implementation approach.

Answer it in your own words first, then compare.

2. A service department should charge production for machine maintenance hours. How do you set this up?